Monday, November 21, 2011

I found this video of Riley's FULL brother -- same sire and dam, born the year after Ri. He is a stunner -- so elegant and light in his frame, almost like a super-fancy thoroughbred. And a nice jumper! He's very young and ridden very differently than a young dressage horse would be, so comparisons are difficult, not to mention a little tacky. Still, Bob and I watched it, and we agreed. IOHOO (In Our Humble Objective Opinion), I have the nicer horse. :-)

Why is Ri the superior specimen? Well for one, Denmark -- lovely as he is -- doesn't have Ri-Ri's big sweet expression. Their trots are very similar, their canters are not (I think Ri's is a little longer strided). I think Riley has more of his mom than his dad, while Denmark is the other way around. Denmark is lovely and refined -- he is in the right job as a hunter, I hope I can see more videos in the future.

12 comments:

oddly done video. Why didn't they want to get a full side shot of him when he was standing? Very hard to determine anything from that video but since I've seen far more of Riley I'd say you're right:) Is this horse for sale?

It's hard to compare since their training has been different and they are muscled differently, but I think they are both lovely, handsome boys! Ri's a lovely dressage horse, and his brother certainly looks like he has the makings of a lovely hunter. Could they switch disciplines? Who knows!

How fun to see the two brothers. I'm not a fan of how they did the video (too much slow mo) but he's a handsome boy on his way to being what should be a nice hunter. I think Riley has better gaits but then again, he's muscled and trained differently. Interesting to speculate if it's nature or nurture.

Nice horse, for sure and looks like a solid hunter type. Some dressage training would do him some good, even in the hunter arena. A nice round back and good carrying muscle is just as important for jumpers as for dressage horses.

It's really hard to judge this guy from this video. I'd love to see him trotting and cantering freely without a rider. I suspect he could make a fine dressage horse with the right training just like Ri could make a fine hunter with the right training. They are both athletic horses with a good head on their shoulders.

I agree with Jean. Hunter riding and dressage riding are extremely different. If this fella had been brought up to be a dressage horse, I believe the quality of his canter would change dramatically. When ridden on a loose rein and not required to rock back as much, any horse's canter would change quality/shape. At any rate, I love any of the Donnerhall horses. All that I have met are sweet as pumpkin pie and brilliant movers.